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The National’s Fake Empire is one of my favourite songs in years. Which means I come to the news that the glum band has recorded an original song for Portal 2 with a happy heart. There’s not really any more to the story than that at this stage. There’s a press release where Valve and the band’s management both say that it’s a good thing. And then there’s an aching gap of silence where a clip of the song could have appeared.

There is, however, one nice detail in there. The press release recommends that we press visit thinkwithportals.com for more details. But doesn’t link there. No, it links to the confusingly broken, presumably intended in-office insult, chet’smom.com. Complete with the %27 ascii code for the apostrophe. There, I bet they’re glad we’re mentioning that.

Also, utterly brilliant though Fake Empire is, Secret Meeting from Alligator is probably the most immediate track.. definetly what I would play people who need selling on the band… As a good friend of mine would say “it’s toe-tappingly good” :-)

Well, that band sound like they are intimately familiar with their own navels. Maybe their shoes as well. For this instalment, are Valve going for the downbeat, depressing, low point of a trilogy, a la The Empire Strikes Back? Will Chell lose a leg and find out Breen is her father?

The idea that musicians should be good at playing their chosen instrument, singers shouldn’t sound like they’re mumbling through a sock or that composers should be striving to write something inspired or noteworthy is elitist? Wow.

I don’t mind these guys existing or people liking them, but nothing about the few songs I’ve heard tickles my enjoyment glands, they’re doing nothing new or interesting musically and they don’t get a free pass for being funny. It seems like a strange choice to have whiny, depressive pop music in Portal, but then maybe they’ll surprise and write something brilliant for it, I guess we’ll see.

“The idea that musicians should be good at playing their chosen instrument, singers shouldn’t sound like they’re mumbling through a sock or that composers should be striving to write something inspired or noteworthy is elitist? Wow.”

It probably has something to do with what people class as noteworthy. The enjoyment of music is very subjective.

That’s kind of the point about music, if it provokes an emotion or a connection you don’t tend to care how many cords are used or how well they play their instruments. That’s why it’s “elitism” I suppose. Why do you think so many millions of people enjoy listening to fairly ordinary pop music? If they enjoy it, well that’s kind of the beginning and end of their thought process about it. Does this pop song make me happy? YES! That’s it. If you can’t understand that then, yeah, you probably are a snob.

I’m not actually much of a fan of The National, but I can totally understand why some people love them. I love all things Pearl Jam whilst knowing they are not pushing any musical boundaries. My joy from listening to them doesn’t come from how well they play their instruments, it comes from how their songs make me feel and the nostalgic connection I have from them being part of my youth.

Personally, I love music because it can run from Stockhausen all the way to angry kids with guitars like the Sex Pistols. I don’t want to deny myself any area of music just because someone isn’t inventing a new sound with every album.

The appreciation of music certainly is objective, the ability to perform and compose are not so much. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is one of the most popular melodies ever and as a children’s song it’s doing an exceptional job, but arguing that whoever came up with the melody for it is a genius would be silly, nor is everyone who can play the notes on a piano an amazing musician. It’s just a pleasant song that fits it’s role in our culture and the same goes for the vast majority of music ever made and performed. And that’s fine. It’s the way it always has been and the way it always will be.

I wasn’t trying to be a dick here, I genuinely think it’s an odd choice of band for a game like Portal and made a silly joke about them needing some cocoa and a hug. I didn’t say they shouldn’t be allowed to exist or that people who like them are stupid

“The idea that musicians should be good at playing their chosen instrument, singers shouldn’t sound like they’re mumbling through a sock or that composers should be striving to write something inspired or noteworthy is elitist? Wow.”

I’m not sure what you’re trying to say there Lilliput, that the Sex Pistols weren’t trying to write something inspired? The Sex Pistols and the punk movement were certainly culturally significant but it sure as hell wasn’t (and still isn’t) about writing or performing great music.

I’m not saying that music needs to live up to a checklist of qualifications, but if you’re going to call something brilliant it needs to have some quality of brilliance, and I’m talking about music here, not lyrics, fashion, politics or attitude.

I’m not really sure how what I’ve heard from that “The” band really fits into Portal.

Oh maybe it will create an interesting dissonance. Maybe their Portal song will different from what we know so far (like what Neil Hannon did for IT Crowd).

But so far it strikes me as a strange choice, and being mostly unimpressed with most 00s “indie rock”, it leaves me a bit “meh”.

I have the feeling that there are (probably less hyped) artists around that actually have an interesting reflection on technology/emotion that would have fitted GladOS’ maze better. Of course no names come to mind right now :p

The National are one of the most consistently brilliant bands of recent times so it’s good to here they are lending their wonderful sounds to Portal. Not perhaps the most obvious choice but they are easily talented enough to produce something different to their usual sound (the guitarists in particular have collaborated with completely different sounding artists in the past) or make their sound work with Portal.

And those dismissing them as relentlessley downbeat clearly haven’t listened to Apartment Story yet

I still don’t get the appeal, sorry, seems very bland musically to me, and vocally for that matter – very simple chord progressions, flat bass, simple drumbeat, and the lyrics didn’t seem profound or moving (though I’ll admit I’m not a lyric guy – vocals are just another melody to me, words don’t matter much).

Nothing against anyone liking them, I like loads of things most people don’t – but I just can’t really find anything to like about these guys.

I saw them when they played in Oslo last summer I think it was, and it was a fantastic experience.
Valve seems like they’re getting a lot of really interesting people in on Portal 2, with them getting Stephen Merchant to do some voice acting and now The National doing some music.

Of all the songs linked so far this is the first one that has *something* to it – still not feeling it, but it’s not immediately dismissable like the rest, the first one where I can see some genuine musical talent behind them.

Still, maybe it is just me but them seem duller than coldplay, and I -like- coldplay (even if they are dull).

I think they’ve heard you the first time about your dislike for the band with your first (and definitely second) condescending comment. Personally, I don’t think they’re special but you could do a lot worse. No need to be all passive-aggressively dismissive about this whole thing.

Does anyone know of an IDN whois tool that actually returns useful information?

In case you weren’t aware, chet’smom.com is actually a valid domain. Its Punycode equivalent is link to xn--chetsmom-fp3d.com which appears to have already been registered, but doesn’t have a website up.

The thing people listening to them for the first time are missing is that their older music really takes a while to appreciate, because there’s a definite lack of immediacy. Listen to anything off their new album (Conversation 16 especially, Terrible Love, Blood Buzz Ohio), because that’s a lot more convincing.

It’s a good fit. They’re not a jokey band like Jonathan Coulton the person is, but there’s a definite understated humor about them. And a wistfulness that might fit a larger, more mature game.

You’re right about them being a good fit for a more considered, mature game. That probably won’t gel with the teenagers but then The National aren’t really a band for teens (with apologies to the exceptions).

Just throwing my personal 2 cents out here, music like everything else is subjective. While I really don’t like anything I’ve heard from the links in this post, my main concern is that I don’t see their ‘style’ fitting in with the game. So unless they make a different type of song, I don’t know if this will work. I’ve always liked the music Valve has used in their games so hopefully this won’t disappoint. I also hope this doesn’t lead to Valve using more official ‘bands’ for their music although I’m assuming sound artists/engineers have done the music for their past games….